Division II collegiate baseball players have a tough time getting on the draft radar even when they are in warm weather states like Florida or California. That task grows exponentially more difficult when they are in cold-weather states. For current A’s prospect Gus Varland, who pitched for the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears, it took a trip to the Northwoods to land on the Major League Baseball map.

Based in the Upper Midwest and Northwestern Ontario, the Northwoods League has helped future MLB stars such as Max Scherzer, Ben Zobrist and Chris Sale improve their MLB Draft profile. Varland — who put up the best numbers of any pitcher in the A’s 2018 draft class last summer — says his time in the Northwoods League during the summer of 2017 was a significant part of his path to professional baseball.

“It’s extremely important for a kid who went to a small D-II, especially in Minnesota, to get noticed,” Varland said in a recent phone interview. “A lot of...